Stephanie Simon Guest Edits The Monday Morning Macro

Happy Monday! I’m Stephanie Simon, an Admissions Manager at Y Combinator. I’m guest editing the YC newsletter with some of the topics on my mind this week. Hope you enjoy.

P.S. We’re accepting applications for YC Winter 2018. You can apply here. If you’d like to learn more and meet us in person, we might be in your city soon! The YC Fall Tour begins later this month.

Firstly, I’m hoping Irma is not as devastating as the predictions say (this is a helpful article for deciding where to donate).

Thinking about the recent natural disasters, here are some climate change-related reads:

An interesting look at some of the flaws in online movie ratings, especially as they relate to the current political divide, through the lens of the An Inconvenient Truth sequel.

A brief summary of the dangers of the palm oil industry. This industry is due for a shake-up. $60B and growing market, but it causes irreparable harm to ecosystems and communities. I’d love to see applications from people working on solutions.

And to end, this is from a few weeks ago, but still on my mind. Cadran Cowansage’s honest and thoughtful post about the Google memo.

On the YC Blog

The Challenges a Repeat Founder Faces
Tikhon Bernstam cofounded Scribd (YC S06) and Parse (YC S11). He stopped by to share his experience starting a second startup, deciding to do YC a second time, and investing in several YC startups after Parse.